


HOCKEY

by jedusaur



Series: Cause and Correlation of Death [1]
Category: Hockey RPF, Machine of Death - ed. Bennardo/Malki/North
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 19:57:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedusaur/pseuds/jedusaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sid gets tested before the draft. There are laws against teams asking prospects about their causes of death, but it helps your chances to offer up the information. Not that Sid has to worry about whether he'll get drafted, but his agent says it would be better not to have the media all speculating.</p><p>They end up speculating anyway, because Pat decides that's far preferable to telling them all that Sid's cause of death is HOCKEY.</p>
            </blockquote>





	HOCKEY

Sid gets tested before the draft. There are laws against teams asking prospects about their causes of death, but it helps your chances to offer up the information. Not that Sid has to worry about whether he'll get drafted, but his agent says it would be better not to have the media all speculating.

They end up speculating anyway, because Pat decides that's far preferable to telling them all that Sid's cause of death is HOCKEY.

*

Sid doesn't tell very many people. The ones he does tell all have the same reaction: "Are you going to quit?"

This is the most bewildering thing Sid's ever heard. The whole reason the machines are such a big deal is that they're never wrong. If it says he's going to die from hockey, he is. There's absolutely nothing more pointless than trying to escape death. It's the definition of inevitable.

Besides, it's not like it's really a surprise. Everything Sid does is hockey, pretty much. The machine probably wouldn't give it as a cause of death for, like, a car crash on the way to a game, but it could mean getting beaned with a puck in the stands or having a heart attack from watching playoffs overtime on TV in his old age. He's not necessarily destined to have his jugular sliced open with a skate blade or something.

And if he is, well, whatever. If he's on the ice, he'll die happy.

*

After Sid scores to win Olympic gold for Canada, high on endorphins and unusually low on personal boundaries, he tells Jonathan Toews.

Toews says, "Me too."

It feels like a weird coincidence, but it really isn't. Sid already knew Toews was one of the few who refused to tell his team, and there aren't that many reasons for doing that.

"It makes sense, if you think about it," says Toews. "It's probably pretty dangerous for a ninety-year-old dude to play contact against guys fifty years younger than him, and let's face it, you and I are both gonna be that ninety-year-old if we make it that long."

That scenario actually hadn't occurred to Sid. It makes him smile to think of being old and decrepit and still bodychecking with a vengeance.

Toews smiles back at him. Sid's not great with facial expressions, but he's pretty sure Toews is thinking the same thing.

*

The first time Sid gets sidelined from concussion symptoms, he freaks out a little. He's accepted his cause of death, but he doesn't want it to happen _now_. He's barely gotten started. He's only won the Cup once. He's not ready to go.

Mario calms him down by pointing out that if the concussion were going to kill him, it probably would have done it when it happened. At this point, if he died, it would be far enough removed from hockey that the machine wouldn't have given that as his cause.

Sid spends a few sleepless nights contemplating his mortality, like most people do when they first get their results, and then he gets over it and focuses on healing. He needs to get back out there on the ice, and stressing out over stupid shit like his eventual demise won't help anything.

*

Geno's cause of death is CHOKING. He chews his food a little more sedately than most people, but otherwise he doesn't seem to think about it much.

Sid tells him, probably a few years later than he could have. He didn't need to wait that long to know that Geno is trustworthy, but somehow he couldn't face the idea of Geno saying he should stop playing.

Geno doesn't say he should stop playing. Geno just holds up his hand in the "shocker" gesture. Sid just about pisses himself laughing, and they never actually talk about it.

*

Toews gets concussed too, during Sid's second banishment from play. He sends Sid a text that says, "At least we know we'll get back out there sometime, right?"

*

It's a gift, Sid decides. It's the universe saying: don't worry. There's more hockey coming. Promise.


End file.
